DIA

Robin Thicke and Co. are seeking a declaratory judgment that the summer hit “Blurred Lines” (or is it #blurredlines?) does not infringe upon the Marvin Gaye song, “Gotta Give it Up.” Decide for yourself here and here. Talk about “blurred lines”…. GET IT?

Another forgery scheme involving Knoedler & Company has been uncovered. This time, a dealer sold the gallery paintings mimicking those of American masters. Pei-Shen Qian, a 73-year old Chinese immigrant, is suspected of forging the paintings in his Woodhaven, Queens apartment. Glafira Rosales, a dealer accused of hawking the forgeries in Manhattan, has been charged with money laundering and tax evasion in connection with the sales. The FBI became involved when suspicions were raised about the authenticity of some Robert Motherwell paintings.

Detroit Update:
The Oakland County Art Institute Authority, one of of the three counties that sends DIA $9.8 million a year as part of a three-county tax, unanimously passed a resolution that would dissolve its financial obligations if the city sells any of its collection.

Also, twenty-something blogs hosted a “Day for Detroit” last week to raise awareness about what might be lost if the DIA collection is forced to a fire sale. Check out the favorites of artists, art insiders and Detroitians on Art F City. Special shout out to Isaac Richard Pool for selecting a piece by my girl, Artemisia Gentileschi and also, the Eva Hesse piece Devon Parrott selected because I rammed my hand into my computer screen trying to touch it…

Judge Oetken of the S.D.N.Y. issued his Biro v. Condé Nast opinion. J. Oetken granted The New Yorker and Grann’s motion to for an order finding Biro to be a public figure, as well as their motion for judgment on the pleadings, and granted the remaining defendants’ motions for dismissal for failure to state a claim. Notably, the claim against Gawker Media was dismissed as time barred, the statute of limitations is one-year in New York. J. Oetken reiterated that, under the single publication rule, a story’s continued presence online does not affect how time accrues. Additionally, J. Oetken determined Biro met all four prongs of the Lerman test, constituting as a limited purpose public figure. Thus, in order to survive dismissal, Biro’s complaint had to sufficiently plead actual malice (“a term of art denoting deliberate or reckless falsification [J. Oetken, 30]). The opinion heavily referenced the affects of the “Twiqbal” standard on defamation actions, as well policy concerns for First Amendment rights. In the end, Biro could not surmount the heavy “actual malice” standard. Check out additional coverage here and here.

Walter de Maria died yesterday at the age of 77. Although de Maria was not a household name, he had a huge influence on the Earthworks movement. Check out his piece, “Lightning Fields” (above), and maybe you’ll see why he is one of my favorites.

Apparently, Christie’s sent employees to assess the DIA collection at some point over the past two months. Here come the vultures. Although there are no clear plans for the museum, everyone has an opinion. Some believe that selling the collection would hurt the art market. While others are more supportive, framing the issue as saving the art versus people’s pensions. While I, surprisingly, tend to agree with the latter. I do take issue with the city having the ability to sell donated the pieces in the first place. I can’t imagine donors would have gifted their pieces if they had anticipated that they might be auctioned off in order to save Detroit from mismanagement.

A member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council has announced that he plans to fight future art funding endeavors. Spoil sport. I was lucky enough to visit to Hong Kong last summer. The trip was incredible, particularly because of noticble investment the city has made in developing publically available art. It would be a shame to see this pass.

Graffiti art knows no bounds in Iceland where the police are looking for the parties responsible for painting giant words on the rocky landscape in the Myvatn region. The Environmental Agency of Iceland has called the act “nature terrorism”.

The State Senate thinks DIAs’ collection is important, but less important than summer vacay. Over on Bloomberg, Virginia Postrel makes a pretty good case for why the collections should be sold off.

Richard Prince posted a video of him burning a “Canal Zone” painting, one of the pieces at issue in the copyright infringement lawsuit brought against him by photographer Patrick Cariou. It may or may not be the actual painting….

Sotheby’s pulled 10 pieces from the Latin American auction that took place in May out of authenticity concerns.

The Velvet Underground went bananas over some iProducts, then they settled for an undisclosed amount.

State Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville-R has proposed a bill to prevent the sale of the DIA collection, and protect cultural assets from bankruptcy proceedings in general. However, it is unclear how the Legislature proposes to go about this, particularly in light of the fact that federal bankruptcy court trumps state law.

A New York trial court dismissed dealer Marc Jancou’s suit against artist Cady Noland for tortious interference with his contract with Sotheby’s. Noland disclaimed the piece, owned by Jancou, asserting her right under the Visual Artists Rights Act permitting an artist to prevent use of her name as the author of a work if it would cause reputational harm.

Danish artist, Martin Martensen-Larsen, plans to turn the body of a convicted murderer, currently on death-row in Texas, into a work of art. The prisoner, Travis Runnels, has donated his body for the piece, which will be painted gold and modeled on Lincoln’s Memorial. The artist has already begun to prepare his argument against the Texas “Abuse of a Corpse” statute. Definitely curious about how this will turn out. I have a hunch Texas courts will have a strict interpretation of the word “offensive”…